1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a goods sales management system for selling goods through a communication line and, more particularly, to a system that timely sends information to a customer concerning the arrival of goods previously ordered and sends a reminder to reorder goods that need to be reordered and includes sending merchandising notices with such information to customers which are familiar with purchasing of goods via access to a goods sales management apparatus or database management system or order entry system through a communication line.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the typical goods sales management system for selling goods utilizing a communication line, all the customers who are connected to the system receive the same merchandizing notices. In such systems there has been no other method or process available for sending notices other than that for sending the same message (notification), such as information about bargain sale, to all customers. Such prior art systems often send messages to customers who have recently purchased the goods of the notice. This wastes the preparation and processing time for the message of such customers and can also irritate the customers. The prior art systems also fail to notify customers that previously ordered goods, that were out of stock at the time of the previous order, have arrived and are available for ordering.
What is needed is a goods sales management system connected directly to customers through a communication line which automatically sends merchandising notices with appropriate information content to selected customers at an appropriate timing based on accumulated goods transaction information.
It is an object of the present invention to selectively send merchandising notices to customers based on goods transaction information.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a goods management system that timely notifies customers whenever previously ordered goods that were out of stock arrive.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system that timely notifies customers when it is about time to place a new order, that is, when a previous order is likely to be reordered.
It is a further object of the present invention to selectively provide merchandising notices to customers based on system use history, purchase history, consumption or utilization history, delivery history, goods availability, goods characteristics, bargain sales, product promotions and other marketing information.
The above mentioned objects can be attained by a goods management system that includes a customer utilization history memory storing historical information indicating the use of the goods sales management system by customers as well as customer information. The system accesses the memory and selects customers to whom a merchandising notice is sent on the basis of the historical information. The system then sends the notice at an appropriate timing to the customer over the communication line. Only selected ones of the customers receive the notices.
These together with other objects and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.